Living Frugal To Make Life Easier Later In Life

All of us want the best for each of us and our families, but some of us have a hard time getting the best of everything no matter how hard we try.

Does the best of everything really mean that much? I used to think so. I thought I would be a much happier person having the best of everything, but things changed in my life and I have found that having the best and most expensive things means nothing, and does not make you a happier person.

I decided living frugal to make life easier later in life would be the best thing for me and my wife, so here is a short summary of how and why I decided to live frugal, and much happier I might add.

There is so much that I wanted in life and tried all different things to achieve these dreams of great living. I had a great job and made good money, but as you might know, many people that do make great money, they spend it just the same as those that get paid less. Not only that, but my addiction to alcohol held me back from making my dreams a reality.

A majority of us all have bills and monthly payments to our creditors, and they might last for many years. The sad part of this is that with those monthly payments comes interest that prolongs getting that loan paid off.

Credit cards is a no no for me now. Sure in my early years of marriage we had credit cards and monthly bills just as everyone else had. To see the balances not going down after you pay and pay on the loan started to make me sick. Paying for the interest first before even starting to touch the principal was a vicious cycle. Each statement that came, there was nothing going down and if so, it was very minimal.

SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE

When I moved to the New Jersey Shore almost two years ago, I had a master plan already thought out of how I was going to be able to live by the Sea and yet not have huge bills.

Downsizing my life and my material things were in order. I sold many things to get out of debt and to be able to live by the Ocean and Bay.

I even had to sell my wife's 50th birthday present, (2002 Corvette). Sure the car was awesome and something we both wanted, but I figured that car can be bought again one day, or I should say a car like it. I sold my house that I grew up in and had fond memories of that house, but again, material things.

Now I had no credit cards, no mortgage and no car payments. We started to look around again at the Jersey Shore,, but this time I could buy something that needed work, and yet be close to the water and Long Beach Island We tried many times to get to the shore, but things never worked out for many different reasons. One and the biggest was my drinking of alcohol.

We gave up so much to be able to live our life long dream near the Sea. Material things mean nothing when it comes to being happy. I was certainly not happy even though I had lots of things, play toys such as boats, Corvettes and so on, but I was not happy in the long run, because unless you are rich enough to pay cash for all your material things you will have those monthly payment and interest tacked on each month.

This is why I decided to get rid of everything and live my dream before I was too old to enjoy what life has to offer.

We now live in a double wide modular home with no mortgage. We paid a great price for it, and did a complete re-model. So the home is like brand new for very few dollars. To be able wake up and smell the Bay is worth every bit of what we did when we downsized and decided to just live frugal.

Anyone can do this if you are willing to sacrifice different things. If you are not loaded with money you still have that option to still live where you wish as long as you don't overdue. Live low key and live frugal. I know I am a much happier person now, and I am living just where I wanted to live my whole life.